Here, the LGB community has a choice: stand in solidarity or stand aside. History suggests that the failure to defend the "T" allows the same state power to then attack the "L," "G," and "B." The attack on trans healthcare is an attack on bodily autonomy; the attack on drag is an attack on queer expression.

In the modern era, these fault lines manifest in several ways:

Artistically, the transgender community has reshaped LGBTQ aesthetics. The ballroom scene, popularized by the documentary Paris is Burning and the TV series Pose , is entirely rooted in trans and gender-nonconforming culture. The "voguing" and "walking" categories are not just dance; they are a reclamation of status, beauty, and wealth that the cisgender world denied them.